Never was that more true than Friday night as the Raptors dozed for the first 16 minutes of the game but woke up with a little censored urging from their head coach and pulled out a 109-108 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks.

“This is a PG-rated show so I can’t really say (what I said), but it’s one of those things we were sleepwalking, kind of emotionally drunk from our close loss the other night I thought. Maybe feeling sorry for ourselves a little bit and I had to get their attention.”

Whatever words he used were immediately effective because over the final eight minutes of that second quarter the Raps scored 27 and gave up just 11 to get themselves right back in the game.

“Their pride kicked in,” Casey said. “They got tired of getting kicked. I thought our defence was too stretched out. We didn’t have the paint covered and we gave up some unbelievable layups and had to use a timeout to talk about that but they bounced back, took heed, and they made a muscle and became confrontational.”

About the only member of the Mavericks who remained a problem for the Raptors from start to finish was former Raptors point guard Jose Calderon, who tied a career high with seven three-pointers in the game.

Amir Johnson got into Dirk Nowitzki and limited him to 18 points after Casey tore a strip off them. Between them, Terrence Ross and John Salmons, made the rest of Monta Ellis’ night a tough one.

Johnson said the turnaround came down to defence.

“Stops, man,” Johnson said. “We all decided as a team, we were doing it offensively but the only thing we were missing was defence and we were like, we’ve got to play some defence before we can beat this team and we did that in the second half.”

DeMar DeRozan, who had Shawn Marion on him all night and was the focus of whatever help defence Rick Carlisle’s scheme was able to provide had a tough scoring night but he did knock down some key shots to get the game to overtime.

But held to just 15 shots on 6-of-18 shooting, it was up to DeRozan to find other ways to help and he did.

The shooting guard and team’s top scorer turned facilitator for the night matching his career high with nine assists.

“They were really into him,” Casey said. “Shawn Marion is one of the best defenders in the league and he was into him. They were having half a man helping on him. They did a good job of shutting him down but he did other things. He passed the ball and did a good job of moving the ball. Some days you have to be the decoy. Some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue. Today he had to kind of be the decoy and it helped our spacing when he was on the floor.”

The scoring was spread out nicely throughout the lineup with all five starters in double figures and joined by Greivis Vasquez who had 14 off the bench.

And very much still fresh in their minds was that one-point overtime loss to the Charlotte Bobcats.

“When you lose like that it’s definitely frustrating, close game like that, that we should have had,” DeRozan said. “Just to be in that situation again you understand what not to do from the previous game.”

The Raptors didn’t make the same mistake twice. The Mavs had 10.2 seconds left on the clock and were down a point with the ball but an Ellis teardrop after a drive down the lane hit front rim and disappeared under a swarm of diving Raptors as the final buzzer sounded.

“I think the whole team was on the floor man, trying to get that rebound,” Johnson, who was on the bottom of that pile, said. “It was just an all-out great effort on that last play. Our whole team dove for the ball and it was great to see that.”

The Raptors are going to need more of that to get another game on this trip with two more remaining beginning with Sunday in Oklahoma City and then Monday at San Antonio.

The way the Raptors started the game, you would have sworn they were playing at home.

For whatever reason, the Raps tend to start every home game lacking in any sense of urgency normally allowing the opponent to build a comfortable lead.

Usually the opposite is true on the road where the Raptors come out full of p#$@ and vinegar and build themselves a little cushion.

That was not the case in Dallas.

The Raptors looked downright dopey through the first 12 minutes particularly on the defensive end and specifically in the paint where the Mavs had their way and got whatever they wanted.

After a quarter the Raps were down by 11 but had given up 26 of the 33 from within the paint. But as bad as those 12 minutes were, the next 12 were equally as good.

Once the Mavs had extended the lead to 19 with an 8-0 run to begin the second, the Raptors wake-up call seemed to arrive all at once. Those easy baskets the Mavs were getting through the first quarter were challenged at every turn. The success at that end of the floor sparked the Raptors at the other as they whittled that 19-point lead all the way down before settling for a three-point deficit at the half.

Dallas was held to just 19 points in the second quarter while the Raps poured in 27 to get back in the game.

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Raptors storm back to beat host Mavericks

They may have let one slip away against the Charlotte Bobcats, but the Raptors got back even with a big overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks.

Overcoming a career-best-tying game in the long-distance shooting department from a former teammate and a horrendous first quarter, the Raptors posted a 109-108 win, their first victory over the Mavs at the American Airlines Arena since 2010.

It ended with Amir Johnson, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry on the floor in a heap chasing down a Monta Ellis miss as the buzzer sounded.

Kyle Lowry’s 20 points led the scoring way, but you could pick a Raptor and find some credit to hand out.

It was that kind of game.

Individually, the three-point battle belonged to Jose Calderon but in the battle of Toronto and Dallas, it was the Raptors who came out on top draining 11-of-21 to the Mavs’ 10-of-21.